If I had the project to do again, I think I might do things a little differently. For starters, though I like the Atom board, I was disappointed that it didn’t have either DVI or HDMI. I’m not sure what else I could have chosen that would fit, but I would look a bit harder. I also didn’t much like the whole controller adapter process, as they were expensive, and, ultimately, not overly useful. Sure, they work OK, but if you’re going to be playing not only NES games on your Emubox, but SNES, Genesis, or N64, you need something with more buttons than a standard NES controller….Now, I had that handled with USB-based controllers, but then the NES controllers are really only for the look…and between the controllers, and the adapters, I probably paid almost $70, shipping in. The alternative would have been manually wiring them to a serial connection, but the mobo didn’t have a serial port…so that wasn’t much help.

In addition, I would somehow magically be rich. That’s right, magically rich. Not only would that make getting the parts easier, but it would let me hang onto the final product, which I don’t think is in the cards this go around; I have a wedding coming up in July, no job as yet (I’m just finishing up my M.A.), I still need to pay rent and eat, and I'm trying to pick up a 2nd 8800GT on the cheap to SLI, so away she goes, as soon as I get the DVD drive back from RMA and put it in. That, unfortunately, means coming up with some ballpark figure for what this beast is worth—any input would be welcome. I’ll give a note on costs at the end of this, though, of course, it can’t account for the immense amount of time spent on this.

Well, I hope this has been entertaining, at least. Sorry about the long-winded bits in between the pictures, but I had some ‘splaining to do. Thanks to all the HWC members who patiently answered my questions while I was building, particularly begolas, jay51, and ipaine for my questions on the Atom and emulators, mklym for advice on slimline ide adapters, and cmetaphor and hossdaddy for their thoughts on RAM. Also, thanks to anyone who actually read all the way through this.